On May 5, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 was elected to a three-year term on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees. A non-profit organization, the Internet Society seeks to provide leadership on internet related standards, education, and policy around the world.
Zittrain, who is a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, is one of the world’s leading experts on legal and policy issues surrounding the Internet. His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education.
Earlier this year, Zittrain gave a lecture at an American Academy of Arts and Sciences meeting in Mountainview, Calif., about the impact of information technology on society. In his talk, he focused on the future of the Internet. Watch or listen to his lecture.
Zittrain is the author of “The Future of the Internet—and How to Stop It,” which argues for more openness on the web. He performed the first large-scale tests of Internet filtering in China and Saudi Arabia in 2002, and now, as part of the OpenNet Initiative, he has co-edited a study of Internet filtering by national governments, “Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering.”
Founded in 1992, the Internet Society is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. The Society acts as a global clearinghouse for information and education related to the Internet, and as a facilitator and coordinator of Internet-related initiatives around the world.